Cold, rainy weather puts brakes on spring planting in Fond du Lac

Apr. 26, 2013

Standing water in farm fields is a common sight in Fond du Lac County. Area farmers are eager for a warming trend with no rain so they can begin working the soil and planting crops. / Aileen Andrews/The Reporter Media

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Forecast

The cold, dreary, rainy weather pattern that has marked April was expected to change today. The National Weather Service says winds will shift to the south, bringing in warmer air and temperatures in the mid-60s. There’s also a 30 percent chance of rain today. The forecast calls for a nice weekend: Temperatures in the mid-60s under mostly sunny skies Saturday and Sunday. That pattern is expected to continue through Monday, when temperatures could hit the low-70s. There is a 40 percent chance of rain on Monday, and a 20 percent chance of rain on Tuesday, but temperatures Tuesday could climb into the mid-70s.

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The bumper corn crop of 2011 seems like a distant memory to farmers that weathered drought last summer and now wonder if they’ll ever get into their soggy fields before May.

While farmers welcomed the extra moisture after the drought of 2012, below normal temperatures and above average precipitation this spring have them casting a wary eye on the calendar.

“Things are just a little slow out of the gate this spring,” said Mike Rankin, crops and soils agent for University of Wisconsin Extension in Fond du Lac County. “There’s still time to turn things around. Our optimum corn planting period hasn’t even arrived yet.”

Rankin said most producers like to have corn in the ground before mid-May. After that date, yield potential for corn is reduced by nearly one bushel per acre per day. The yield loss becomes more significant if planting is delayed until after June 1.

Wisconsin farmers can still plant a large number of acres quickly. Since 1979, there have been five years when 40 percent or more of the acres were planted in one week, according to the University of Wisconsin.

A year ago, nearly one-half of the oats crop was planted in Wisconsin. So far, a stubborn weather pattern has kept farmers off the sodden cropland.

Weather patterns

National Weather Service Meteorologist Marcia Cronce said a dynamic weather pattern is responsible for keeping warmer air at bay.

“It’s taken quite a while for this jet stream to shift north in order to draw in some of the warmer air from down south,” Cronce said. “Next week we see a warmer weather pattern with temperatures in the upper 60s.”

Normal temperatures for this time of year are high 60s and lows of 39 degrees.

“We’ve been averaging about 38 degrees for the month of April,” Cronce said. “We’ve also had 8.34 inches of precipitation since Jan. 1, where we normally would see about 5.6 inches.”

Below normal temperatures mixed with constant precipitation have left water standing in fields across Fond du Lac County.

“The moisture helps to keep the ground even colder, which contributes to late growth,” Rankin said. “I took a picture of an alfalfa field a year ago and even the weeds were in bloom. I looked at a field last week and didn’t see any growth.”

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Winter kill

Freezing rain and ice did little to help crops that overwinter and are sensitive to the freezing and thawing cycles — especially alfalfa and winter wheat. Rankin says it’s too early to assess winter kill damage.

“The low spots in fields where water and then ice accumulated took a pretty good hit. But people with well-drained fields should be alright,” Rankin said.

Many farmers who watched once-promising crops shrivel up under the scorching sun during the drought last summer are more than willing to trade an early start in the fields for the additional moisture.

“They feel that these softer rains and infiltration (of moisture) are going to build that sub-soil moisture and improve the yields in the long run,” said Greg Booher, Farm Business and Production Management instructor at Lakeshore Technical College. “I’d be really worried if we hadn’t had the decent snow cover and the recent rains. The drought left us really depleted.”

Farmers with shrinking feed supplies that have been forced to buy pricey feed are hoping for a string of warm, windy days to dry the land for tilling, planting and harvesting of first crop of hay.

“We’re only looking at the difference of a couple of weeks in the big picture in terms of what the alfalfa does and when we cut,” Rankin said. “In the meantime, there’s not much we can do about the weather but wait.”